Château Yvonne, 2020 Saumur-Champigny "La Folie"

Since 2007, Château Yvonne has been in the hands of Mathieu Vallée, but the estate has a long history of viticulture dating back to the 16th century. The modern story of the domaine begins in 1997, when the estate was purchased by Jean-François and Yvonne Lamunière, who christened the estate Château Yvonne. Under the direction of Françoise Foucault, wife of Charly Foucault of Clos Rougeard, during these first 10 years, the estate quickly established itself as a rising start in the appellation with organic viticulture being a cornerstone of the domaine's philosophy. Mathieu has upheld this legacy and taken things a step further, fully converting the estate to biodynamics by 2012.

The estate is comprised of 16ha of vines, 10 of which are Cabernet Franc. The vineyard parcels are dotted across four neighbouring communes that hug the Loire River. From west to east, Souzay-Champigny, Parnay, Turquant and Montsoreau. This wine is coming from parcels all in the commune of Souzay-Champigny: Les Mouchards, Les Chalognes, Les Gagneries, Le Vigneau, Clos Linthier, La Maisonnette, La Noue. These lieux-dits are all located in the centre of the commune.

Now, you might recall from a previous video, there are three main areas for viticulture in the commune of Souzay-Champigny. We have the area closest to the Loire River that stretches about 1km, and here we are at an altitude of 45-55m above sea level and the bedrock here is the Turonian tuffeau chalk. Likewise, there is an area of vineyards at a similar elevation about 3.5km to the southwest, set back from the Loire River, where we find again the influence of the Turonian tuffeau chalk.

But in the middle of the commune, around the hamlet of Champigny, where these lieux-dits for this wine are located, the terroir picture looks completely different. This area of vineyards stretches about 2km from north to south, and we are sitting on a very large limestone bench or plateau at an elevation of 72 to 84m above sea level. Now, this limestone that we find here is very different to the Cretaceous-era Turonian tuffeau chalk in the rest of the commune. So this limestone dates to the Eocene era, and was formed around 36 to 55 million years ago, versus the Turonian tuffeau chalk that was formed around 89 to 93 million years ago.

This Eocene-era limestone is a freshwater limestone or lacustrine limestone. It is about 2m or about 6.5 ft thick, and it is a very hard, dense limestone, and is extremely resistant to erosion. Because of these properties, centuries ago it would've been quarried for the use of building materials. In fact, the beneficial properties of this limestone for building purposes was most notably discovered by engineer Louis-Alexandre de Cessart, who was responsible for the construction of the Cessart bridge in Saumur which stretches across the Loire River.

So, what does all this have to do with wine? Well, this plateau of limestone, which is known locally as "la pierre de Champigny," because of its density, it has very good drainage capabilities and very low fertility, and thus was highly regarded for viticulture, most notably by the monks of the nearby Abbey de Fontevraud, who played an important role the cultivation of grape vines here back in the middle ages. So this little pocket has a long history of viticulture, thanks in part to this very special kind of limestone.

So, getting back to today's wine. This is coming from around 5ha worth of vines from these seven lieux-dits that I mentioned before. The vines range in age from 15 to 50 years. And in terms of topsoil, we have on average about 40 to 60 cm of topsoil, and it is predominantly clay in texture or clayey-silt, so around 40% clay content. Mathieu explained to me that the nature of the bedrock with this freshwater limestone and clay topsoil make this soils cooler over all, which slows the growing season, and allows for slightly longer hangtime, without gaining excess sugars, so preserving acidity and allowing for enhanced phenolic ripeness of the skins and seeds, giving more pronounced tannins in the finished wine.

In terms of the winemaking, in the case of the 2020 vintage, approximately 20% of the fruit was left whole cluster, and the rest was destemmed. Fermentation takes place in 50hl concrete vats, and it spent approximately 3 weeks on skins. Élevage takes place in large wooden conical vats for about 8 months before bottling.

Key wine facts below:

• Producer: Château Yvonne

• Appellation: Saumur-Champigny

• Commune: Souzay-Champigny

• Lieux-Dits: Les Mouchards, Les Chalognes, Les Gagneries, Le Vigneau, Clos Linthier, La Maisonnette, La Noue

• Soil: 40-60cm of clay topsoil over a bedrock of lacustrine limestone

• Alcohol: 13.5%